William Vincent, of Chehalis, who attends Winlock High School, stands with other members of the Youth Academy.
Keyonna Abrams, Centralia, gets a certificate and a hand shake from Gov. Jay Inslee.
Julius Sword, member of the youth academy, attends Rochester High School.
Three teens from Lewis and South Thurston counties were among 149 students to graduate from the Washington Youth Academy on Dec. 17.
The Academy is a division of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program.
Local cadets were Keyonna Abrams, of Centralia, who attends Centralia High School; William Vincent, of Chehalis, who attends Winlock High School; and Julius Sword, who attends Rochester High School and lives in Rochester.
The academy teaches teens discipline and helps them recover credits so they can go back to school and earn a diploma or seek an alternate path to finish high school education, such as a GED or Running Start, according to a press release from the Academy.
“This is the start, not the end,” said Maj. Gen. Bret Daugherty, the state’s adjutant general and commander of the Washington National Guard, during the academy’s commencement ceremony.
“Not only have you made a commitment to improve your own lives, you have completed Community Emergency Response Team training while you were here at the Youth Academy. You came here focused on getting your life back on track, but leave here able to help and serve others. That is a huge change in your life and we’re very proud of you for that.”
The youth academy had a graduation rate of 90.1 percent for the most recent class, the best percentage to graduate from any class to date, according to the release.
Cadets can earn up to eight credits — equaling about a year and a half of high school — in 22 weeks.
Cadets also completed 8,181 hours of community service cleaning a Sept. 11, 2001, memorial, tending to park trails, tutoring youths and donating blood to the Red Cross.
“They’ve learned a lot of new things that have increased and bolstered their confidence, discipline and teamwork,” said academy Director Larry Pierce. “And of course, our cadets invest a significant amount of time, energy, effort and a wide range of emotion in the daily life of the academy.”
The Washington Youth Academy is a state-run residential and post-residential intervention program for youth who have dropped out of high school or who are at risk of dropping out. New classes start in January.
To learn more about the program, go to http://mil.wa.gov/youth-academy.
